Monday, 13 July 2009

Lord Falconer in the news yet again!

I don't know! Lord Falconer was in the news last week, over Dignitas and the attempt to sneak in euphenasia through the back door. Now here he is again - in the thick of the Dr David Kelly-did-he-commit-suicide-or-was-he-murdered-row.

Emails missing? Tell me about it! Who is hacking into our computers and messing about with our personal and private correspondence? Hey, I thought that sort of thing was meant to be illegal? Hmmmmm. not if you are one of the brethren - it's ok then, by the looks of it. Is there anything that is illegal for the brethren?

Doctors demand inquest into death of Dr David Kelly A group of 13 doctors who believe that Dr David Kelly, the Government scientist, did not commit suicide, but was murdered, are launching a legal campaign to demand an inquest.

The original inquest into Dr Kelly's death six years ago in woods near his Oxfordshire home was suspended by Lord Falconer, then the Lord Chancellor.

He designated the Hutton Inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the weapons inspector's death as "fulfilling the function of an inquest".

Dr Kelly died shortly after he was exposed as the source for a story claiming the Government "probably knew" that a claim Iraq could attack with weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes was not true.

After taking evidence from Dr Nicholas Hunt, the pathologist who carried out the post-mortem examination, Lord Hutton concluded that "the principal cause of death was bleeding from incised wounds to the left wrist" combined with the consumption of painkillers and "silent coronary artery disease".

His family support Lord Hutton's conclusion and have said they do not want the inquest to be re-opened. However a team of doctors unconvinced by the findings of the Hutton Report has compiled a dossier which claims that a cut to the ulnar artery in Dr Kelly's wrist could not have killed him.

The 12-page document concludes: "The bleeding from Dr Kelly's ulnar artery is highly unlikely to have been so voluminous and rapid that it was the cause of death."

The doctors also claim that the level of the painkiller co-proxamol in Dr Kelly's blood was about one third of that required to produce death.

They have hired a solicitor, Martin Day, of Leigh Day and Co, and received advice from a barrister, Richard Hermer, QC, who intend to use the Coroners Act to challenge Lord Falconer's suspension of the inquest.

Among the doctors is Christopher Burns-Cox, 71, the former senior consultant physician for the Frenchay Healthcare Trust, Bristol, and current co-chairman of the NHS consultants' association.

Another is David Halpin, 69, a former lecturer in anatomy at King's College, London, and a former consultant in orthopaedic and trauma surgery at Torbay Hospital, who later went into general practice.

Dr Halpin said they had argued their case in the legal document in "microscopic" detail and added: "We reject haemorrhage as the cause of death and see no contrary opinion which would stand its ground. I think it is highly likely he was assassinated.!

The doctors have been working closely with Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP, who believes the scientist was murdered by enemies he made in the course of his work as a weapons inspector.

The Hutton Report said Dr Hunt saw "evidence of a significant incised wound to his left wrist, in the depths of which his left artery had been completely severed...The arterial injury had resulted in the loss of a significant volume of blood, as noted at the scene."

But the doctors argue that the artery has the "width of a matchstick in its constricted state" and Dr Kelly's blood would have quickly clotted.

The doctors also cite a number of studies which they say prove for "all practical purposes" that suicide using the means allegedly adopted by Dr Kelly "does not exist in Britain".

Dr Halpin also claimed his own work was being monitored, as more than 6,000 emails have disappeared as though they were being sifted remotely, which he believes was done by "a state-sponsored agency".